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(No Model.)

A. BARTLETT.

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' Patented Sept. 30. 1890.

w/i/bneooeo/ UNITED. STATES PATENT OF IcE.

SANFORD A. BARTLETT, or WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS.

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SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 437,415, dated September 30, 1890.

Application filed June 5, 1890. Serial No. 354,331. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

' Be it known that I, SANFORD A. BARTLETT,

panying drawings, and the letters of reference to marked thereon, forming a part of this speci-v fication, and in which Figure 1 represents a side view of one end of a wagon-body with my invention applied thereto, as will be hereinafter more fully described. Fig. 2 represents a top or plan View of a section of the parts shown in Fig. 1, as Will be more fully described hereinafter. Fig. 3 represents a side view of a portion of the I parts shown in Fig. 1 to illustrate a slight modification of the spring device, as will be hereinafter more fully described; and Fig. 4 represents a rear edge view of the tail-boardholding iron,as will be hereinafter described.

To enable those skilled in the art to which my invention belongs to make and use the same, I will proceed to describe the same more in detail.

The nature of my invention consists of a simple, light, and yet durable device for holding the tail-board of a wagon or other similar carriage or cart in any desired position, in lieu of adjusting the same by means of the inconvenient straps and chains in common use for such purposes. Only so much of a wagon-body is shown as is necessary to illustrate my invention, and the invention is to be applied to the end of the tail-board on each side of the wagon-body.

In the drawings, the part A is a section of the bottom of the wagon, B, a section of one or inclined position, I employ two tailboard of the top rails of the side of the wagon; 0, one of the bottom rails; D, the top rail of the tail-board E, which is hinged at a to the rear bottom rail of the body F of the wagon.

The body of the wagon and the tail-board hinged thereto may be made in the usual 'manner; but, in lieu of the old common straps and buckles or chains and hooks for adj usting and holding the tail-board E in a closed adjusting and holding irons G- one at each rear corner of the body F of the wagon or other carriage or cart-and a side view of one of these holding-irons G is shown in Figs. 1 and 3, and a top View in Fig. 2, and an edge view in Fig. 4 of the drawings.

Ihe tail-board adjusting and holding iron G is made with a slot H extending nearly its whole length, as fully shown in full and dotted lines, Figs. 1 and 3 of the drawings, and it will be observed that the metal of the iron on the outer edge of theslot H is made with a series of curved holding hooks or rests b b bone in this instance about midway and the other two near the bottom, all as fully shown in Figs. 1 and S -while the metal on the opposite edge of the slotH is formed with slight pointed projections c c c, which are all above their respective hooks or rests b on the opposite edge of slot 11, and the metal of the edge of the slot curves back slightly both above andbelow points a, as shown at d d d, and by which arrangement the necks of the corner-irons I on the upper corners of the tail-board can be moved down in slots H and rested against either of the hooked or rest places I) to give the tail-board agreater or less inclination, as indicated in dotted lines, Fig. 1.

Necks e have'heads K, and the necks e and heads K can be cast with their respective corner-irons I. Neck 6 of one of the corner-irons is indicated by dotted lines, Figs. 1 and 3, and its length is only sufficient to permit the irons G to work easily between the side of its corner-iron I and head K on the outer end of the neck 6. I prefer to make the corner-irons I and the slotted irons G of malleable iron, since by this mode of construction they can be quite light and yet strong and durable.

M is an iron plate fastened to the upper rear corner of the wagon-body, and through thisa shouldered bolt N passes, its shoulder fitting against plate M, and between plate M and bolthead' the eye or projection G is fitted to turn and swing, and as eye G is made with the part G the latter turns or swings when the tail-board E is moved back on bolt N as a fulcrum or center of motion.

To prevent the iron Gfrom rattling, a spring is desirable to constantly press the lower end of said iron forward, and in Figs. 1 and 201cc good arrangement is shown, where a spring P is fastened at one end in a lug P, projecting from plate M, while its upper spring or free end f presses on the upper edge of eyepiece G', back of its fulcrum m, as fully inclicated in Fig. 1.

In Fig. 3 a modification of the spring arrangement is shown. AspringQ has its lower end fastened in a lug on the forward edge of iron G, while its upper or free end 9 is sprung forward and retained in that position by the grooved pin R, the end g of the spring working around in the groove in pin R, which projects from plate M, and in this arrangement the tension of spring Q will be the samein Whatever position tail-board E may be.

When it is desired to have the tail-board E dropped to a horizontal position, the necks e of the corner-irons I are allowed to slide down and rest in the lower ends h of the slots in the irons G, and when it is desired to let the tailboard drop down into a vertical position the heads K are slid or moved through the loops S in the bottoms of the irons G, necks e passing through cross-slots min the forward edges of the irons G, as indicated in full and dotted lines in the drawings.

The bolts N may serve to hold the upper ends ofthe common corner braces of the wagon-body.

Having described my improvements in tailboard adjusters for wagons and similar carriages, what I claim therein as new and of my invention, and desireto secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The within-described tail-board-adjusting iron G, provided with eye G andslot H, the outer edge of which is provided with a series of holding hooks or rests b, and its opposite or inner edge with a series of projections 0, while the bottom of iron Gis provided with a cross-slot m and loop S, all as and for the purposes set forth.

2. The combination, with the tail-board E,- wagon-body F, and corner-irons I, provided with necks e. and heads K, of holding-bolts N and tail-board adjusting and holding irons G, substantiallyas and for the purposes set forth.

SANFORD A. BARTLETT. 

